The present-day U.S. military qualifies by any measure as highly professional, much more so than its Cold War predecessor. Yet the purpose of today’s professionals is not to preserve peace but to fight unending wars in distant places. Intoxicated by a post-Cold War belief in its own omnipotence, the United States allowed itself to be drawn into a long series of armed conflicts, almost all of them yielding unintended consequences and imposing greater than anticipated costs. Since the end of the Cold War, U.S. forces have destroyed many targets and killed many people. Only rarely, however, have they succeeded in accomplishing their assigned political purposes. . . . [F]rom our present vantage point, it becomes apparent that the “Revolution of ‘89” did not initiate a new era of history. At most, the events of that year fostered various unhelpful illusions that impeded our capacity to recognize and respond to the forces of change that actually matter.

Andrew Bacevich


Thursday, March 11, 2010

War News for Thursday, March 11, 2010

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldiers in a roadside bombing in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, March 11th.


US House rejects bid to end Afghanistan stay:


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: The U.S. military said that two Iraqis were killed in western Baghdad on Wednesday during operations by U.S. and Iraqi forces. The incident is being investigated. A source at the Iraqi Interior Ministry said U.S. troops fired at a civilian car, killing the two people, a man and a woman.

#2: Two civilians were wounded by a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad, police said.


Diyala Prv:
#1: Three police personnel have been injured in an explosive charge blast in Baaquba, a local police source said on Wednesday. “On Wednesday, a roadside explosive device went off on the main road linking al-Saadiya district to Hamreen (northern Falluja) while a police patrol vehicle was passing the location,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.The blast wounded three patrolmen, the source noted.


Samawa:
#1: A policeman killed one person and injured three more before shooting himself in central Samawa city, eyewitnesses said on Thursday. “The policeman, who is working as a guard in the information building of the local administration, opened fire on his colleagues after a dispute erupted between them, killing one and injuring three,” eyewitnesses told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “He left the building and started opening fire randomly in the street in central Samawa, injuring a passing woman,” the witnesses added. “The man tried to commit suicide when he shot himself,” a medic said, noting that he injured himself. “Two of the three injured people are in critical condition,” he said.


Mosul:
#1: One Iraqi army soldier and one civilian were wounded on Wednesday when a roadside bomb went off in western Mosul city.

#2: An improvised explosive device (IED) has targeted the house of a former police director in Ninewa, a local security source said on Wednesday. “On Wednesday, an explosive charge exploded in Hamam al-Aleel district (southern Mosul) near a police checkpoint leading to the house of the former police director in the province, Staff Maj. Gen. Khaled al-Hamdani,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#3: A policeman was wounded when a pair of roadside bombs exploded near a police checkpoint in southern Mosul late on Wednesday, police said


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: One Iraqi policeman was killed and two others were injured in an explosive charge blast in eastern Falluja, a local security source said on Wednesday. “A roadside explosive device went off in Thiraq Degla area, al-Karma district, while a police patrol vehicle was passing the location,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. The blast killed one patrolman and wounded two others, the source pointed out.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: The NATO force in Afghanistan says a homemade bomb has killed four children and a civilian adult in a northeastern province. International troops and Afghan security forces are evacuating at least three more wounded children to a military hospital after Thursday morning's explosion in Kapisa province, north of the capital, Kabul.

#2: A suicide bomber killed five members of the Afghan security forces when he drove a truck carrying explosives hidden under firewood into an Afghan military base on Wednesday, police said. Dawlat Khan Zadran, police chief of southeastern Paktika province, said the bomber had driven the small truck inside the base in the remote Bermel district near the border with Pakistan. He said another four people were wounded.

#3: Canadian and Afghan soldiers are pushing deep into Taliban territory ahead of a major offensive in Kandahar this spring. The commanding officer of Canada's battle group in Afghanistan said yesterday the troops are moving southwest into the Panjwaii district. Lt.-Col. Jerry Walsh said the move is meant to cut off Taliban supply routes and movement into Kandahar city.

#4: Two US missile strikes deep in Pakistan's northwest tribal belt killed up to 16 militants. Two successive bombing raids by unmanned spy planes hit a building and vehicles late Wednesday in North Waziristan, a bastion of Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants near Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. "The death toll in the drone strikes has risen to 16 as four more bodies were found," a senior security official in the region told AFP. "At least five of those killed are foreign militants." Seven militants were killed in the first strike targeting a compound and a nearby vehicle in Mizar Madakhel village, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan. Nine more fighters died in a second strike which hit shortly after as militants pulled bodies from the rubble of the first bombing raid.


DoD: Sgt. Aaron M. Arthur

DoD: Spc. Lakeshia M. Bailey

DoD: Pvt. Nicholas S. Cook

Posted by whisker at 3:06 AM

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